


Jack 'O Lantern

by m_findlow



Category: Torchwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-06 01:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13400475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_findlow/pseuds/m_findlow
Summary: Jack's costume puts a dint in their Halloween plans





	Jack 'O Lantern

Gwen had never really been into Halloween, but when you were surrounded by aliens every day, Halloween became more of a celebration of all things creepy and silly. It should have really been a bank holiday for Torchwood, their national day. Instead it was more likely to be a long wearisome one, their biggest problem being telling apart the real aliens from the costumed ones. It seemed too much to hope, analysing then latest rift readings that the rift might give them a quiet Halloween for once. Perhaps they'd get lucky and leave the crazy revelers to the local police; a job she no longer envied.

'Getting into the spirit of things, I see,' Gwen observed watching as Ianto carried a very large pumpkin across the hub.

'No, no, no,' he muttered. 'Not again.'

He put the pumpkin down on his desk and put his hands on his hips, glaring at it like it had offended him somehow. 'He's gone a ruined everything, again.'

'Jack?'

'Who else?'

'What's he done?' Gwen asked, almost wondering if it was wise to query.

'See for yourself,' he said, pointing at the carved pumpkin.

Gwen peered at it. 'It's very good. Must've taken you hours to get it just perfect.' She gave it a closer inspection, trying to find Jack's telltale signs that he'd somehow tampered with it. 'I'm not see anything wrong with it.'

'No?' he said, raising his eyebrows. 'Had it occurred to you to wonder where Jack is?'

Gwen looked around, then looked at Ianto, looked at the pumpkin, and back at Ianto again.

'No.'

'Yes,' he nodded.

'But, how?'

'The how is the easy part. The why is a little more complicated.'

Ianto proceeded to explain to Gwen how Jack had decided that costumes for Halloween this year were a pointless waste of money when they had perfectly good alien technology that could do the job for them. He'd wrangled from storage a transformer ray that could transform physical appearance. 'That way,' he said, 'we'd have the best costumes in Cardiff, because they'd be the real thing.'

'Please tell you you didn't agree to it?'

'Of course not. Bad enough that I had to talk him out of wanting to go as zombies. The last thing I wanted was to have to spend the night with him having flesh literally falling off him.'

Gwen crossed her arms, still looking like she was playing mental catchup, eyeing off the pumpkin suspiciously, half wondering if this wasn't an elaborate joke the pair of them were trying on her. She scrutinised Ianto's face for the traces of a lie, knowing it would be well concealed, but the miffed expression on his face looked very genuine.

'So, what's with the pumpkin look then? I'm guessing that wasn't his original plan?'

'Oh, no. Well, I heard him muttering something about going as Jack Skellington, you know, from The Nightmare Before Christmas? Only I think he must've got his wires crossed, and instead now he's Jack 'O Lantern, instead.'

Bloody Torchwood, Gwen thought. 'So how do we fix him?'

'We don't. Or don't have to, I should say. Twenty four hours and he'll be back to normal, but for now he's stuck like this. If he had hands and a voice he might be able to revert himself back, by activating the ray and rethinking himself back to the way he was, but as usual, he's gone and done something completely stupid. Only Jack could manage to transform himself into an inanimate object. I've a right mind to light a candle in him and leave it there all night as punishment.'

'Okay,' Gwen said, running a hand over her face, 'so what's the plan then?'

'Go home. Enjoy a hopefully rift free Halloween.'

'You're sure you don't want some company? Rhys and I weren't planning anything special.'

'No,' Ianto sighed. 'That's okay. I've got a giant vegetable to keep me company. What else could I possibly need?'

 

Ianto stared at the pumpkin as it sat on the side of his desk, watching him as he caught up on reports. It wasn't what he'd planned for the evening, but what else was he supposed to do?

'Don't grin at me like that,' he said, giving Jack a sideward glance. 'This is so far beyond funny I don't even know what to say.'

The pumpkin just continued to grin. It was rather fixed in place, but Ianto's imagination simply made it feel like Jack was purposefully mocking him.

'We were supposed to go trick or treating with David and Mica.'

He looked at Jack with that big toothy grin and wild eyes.

'Well, I can't very well take you, can I?'

The pumpkin just stared back.

'You're sure I should go anyway?' he asked, having a one way conversation with the Halloween decoration.

'Okay, I suppose it would be bad to let them down. One thing if we cancelled because the world was ending, but I don't think this quite falls into the same category.'

He got up and carried Jack down to his bunker, placing him on the bed, whilst he got his own costume sorted.

Just before he was about to leave, he spared Jack one last look.

'Be good and I might bring you home some candy. Just don't plan on turning into a carriage at midnight. I don't think your bunker is big enough.'


End file.
